3:50 PM - 5:00 PM
Track I:
Advertising Strategies in the Diversified Digital Culture: Broadcast, Cable, Satellite, Broadband, Games and Mobile
A transformation of advertising is steadily taking form. As the digital technologies emerge and engage the consumer in new and better understood ways, the relationship between the brand, the agency and the consumer is beginning to take shape. With a stronger economy and the gaining strength in all sectors of digital transmission, from cable and satellite to mobile, games and broadband, an advertising strategy in a diversified digital environment, which proving to be challenging, is nonetheless finding its footing. Technology has forever changed the landscape and it is up to the creative team to design and develop new tools, visions and strategies to grow within it.
Tracy Dolgin, president and CEO, YES Network
Rob Norman, CEO, MEC Interaction, Mediaedge:cia
David Ernst, Executive Vice President, Director, Futures & Technologies, Initiative Worldwide
Todd Herman, Director of Media Strategy, MSN Video, MSN, Microsoft Corporation
Chris Pizzurro, Vice President of Multimedia Marketing, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc
Vince Messina, Entertainment Category Development Officer, Yahoo!
Gigi Johnson, Principal, Maremel Partners; Lecturer, Entertainment and Media Management Institute, UCLA Anderson School of Management, Moderator
Tracy Dolgin, President & CEO, YES Network: Tracy Dolgin was name
d president and CEO of the YES Network in September 2004. He is responsible for all aspects of operations for the most-watched regional sports and entertainment television network in the country -- featuring the 26-time World Champion New York Yankees and the 2002 and 2003 Eastern Conference champion New Jersey Nets. Prior to joining YES Network, Dolgin served as managing director and co-head of Houlihan Lokey Howard and Zukin’s (HLHZ) Media, Sports and Entertainment practice. At HLHZ, Dolgin advised clients on issues including valuation, financing, sales and acquisitions, and corporate restructuring. He joined HLHZ in June 2003, following his co-founding of Media Connect Partners, a boutique investment bank acquired by HLHZ. In May 2000, Dolgin was named president of FOX Sports Net, a partnership between News Corporation’s FOX Sports and Cablevision’s Rainbow Media. FOX Sport Net was the country’s first national, regional and local supplier of sports programming, reaching more than 82 million homes through its network of 21 regional sports channels. As President, Dolgin oversaw all operating areas of FOX Sports Net, including marketing, advertising, on-air promotion, programming, production, operations and advertising sales, and also managed FOX owned-and-operated RSNs and FOXSports.com. Under Dolgin’s guidance, FOX Sports Net expanded its distribution to more than 82 million U.S. television homes, increased network advertising sales, and improved its local and national programming to include top-quality production of regional sports news shows, as well as FOX Sports Net’s irreverent sports and entertainment show, BEST DAMN SPORTS SHOW PERIOD. In addition to Dolgin’s FOX Sports Net responsibilities, he oversaw several strategic relationships with sister division FOX Sports, including the creation and development of FOX Sports Radio, FOX Sports Bar & Grilles and FOX Sports Interactive. Dolgin came to FOX Sports Net from parent company FOX/Liberty Cable -- the joint venture between News Corporation and Liberty Media -- where he served as chief operating officer since 1997. At FOX/Liberty Cable, Dolgin was responsible for the operations of the company’s various assets including FOX Sports Net, the FX cable channel, and investments in various other cable channels. Prior to joining FOX/Liberty, Dolgin led FOX Sports’ ground-breaking marketing efforts as executive vice president of marketing. He joined FOX Sports at the News Corporation division’s December 1993 inception. He developed the Emmy Award-winning "NFL on FOX...Same Game, New Attitude" marketing campaign; the "NHL on FOX...Right On The Edge" effort; and orchestrated the most comprehensive marketing campaign in the history of Major League Baseball. Each initiative was the most aggressive effort ever put forth by a network to promote a league broadcast partner, and combined to feature over 100 contemporary NFL, NHL and Major League Baseball stars. Dolgin came to FOX Sports from his position as executive vice President of marketing, FOX Broadcasting Company, which he held since December 1992. In that position, he managed all FOX marketing activities, including promotion, advertising and publicity. Before joining FOX, Dolgin was senior vice president of marketing at HBO Video in New York. Dolgin joined HBO Video as Marketing Manager in 1986, when it was known as Thorn EMI-HBO Video, and remained with the firm, as it became HBO-Cannon Video and then HBO Video in 1988. Prior to entering the sports and entertainment media industry, Dolgin worked at General Foods in product management. Dolgin received a bachelor’s degree in industrial-labor relations from Cornell University, and a master’s degree in business administration from Stanford University.Rob Norman is worldwide CEO of MEC:Interaction, a new entity repre
senting the joint forces of The Digital Edge, Outrider and Wunderman Media. The company is equally focused on direct response and driving consumers to deeper engagement with branded content using every channel from search to DRTV. Rob's vision of the sector sees an integrated interaction strategy playing a critical role in increasing the efficiency of customer recruitment and maximizing potential lifetime value. As a member of the global executive committee of MEC Rob has been a leader in the field of interactive media since founding CIA Interactive in 1994 and creating Outrider in 1998. Over this period Rob has been responsible for building the capability into one of the largest of its kind in the ownership of a media services company. Since joining the company in 1986 Rob has held a variety of posts in the international organization and was most recently Chairman and CEO of the company's UK businesses prior to moving to New York in January 2005.David Ernst, Executive Vice President, Director, Futures & Technologi
es: In his role as Executive Vice President, Director of Futures & Technologies, David leads the company's research team in the development and deployment of proprietary research initiatives, providing clients with a distinct advantage in today's dynamic media environment. David has a broad range of experience that he uses to develop consumer insights and identify the greatest media value that can be leveraged in the media process, across all media forms. Prior to his promotion in spring of 2003, David held the position of senior vice president, direct of Initiative Solutions, in which he developed research applications, policies and priorities for Initiative clients. David joined Initiative in August 2001 when True North Media merged with Initiative. Throughout his 20-year career, David has developed several methods of consumer-driven brand-building approaches for media planning and buying. Prior to joining True North Media in 1997, he was Senior Vice President, Associate Director of research and strategic media insights at Young & Rubicam (Y&R). He began his career in 1980 in local market television and radio, where he held various sales, programming and management positions at WBFO-FM, WUWU-FM and WIXT-TV. David also has extensive experience in the development of media and marketing models for budget determination and allocation, advertising productivity measures, and optimizing media investments. He has published a number of papers, participated in leading industry panels and also serves on several committees at the Advertising Research Foundation, Media Ratings Council, Agency Media Research Council (AMRC) and the Interactive Television Association. In 2002, David coauthored a groundbreaking paper on understanding interaction and consumer media value that was delivered at the opening session of the prestigious ESOMAR (World Association of Opinion and Market Research) conference in Cannes, France. David initiated and directs Initiative's exclusive research partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) School of Comparative Media Studies, which has resulted in breakthrough research on a number of key industry issues, including consumer behavior, interactivity and media convergence. In his spare time, David enjoys skiing and biking. He resides in Norwalk, Connecticut with his wife and two children.Todd Herman, Director of Media Strategy, is responsible for the strategy, implementation and communication of advertising sales for MSN Video. Mr. Herman began working in streaming media in 1996, shortly after its inception, while working at the forefront of the Hot Talk Radio movement. In 1998, he co-founded and served as CEO of theDial, (now Loudeye Radio), a seminal Internet Radio Pioneer. theDial provided private labeled audio and Internet radio technology to offline music service providers and top 100 web properties; theDial was the first company to welcome multiple Fortune 500 companies to Internet Radio advertising. As President of Mediagasm, LLC, he consulted media and technology companies on crossing online and broadcast advertising models, his clients included Microsoft, Windows Media, MSNBC.com and Ads.com -an early pioneer in serving Television advertising online- where he conceived his three C's of streaming media for consumers: control, condense & combine. He sits on the board of the International Webcasters Association and is a contributing author to The Streaming Media Bible by Steve Mack (2002, Wiley & Sons). Before co-founding theDial, Mr. Herman worked in most every facet of radio including several years as a nationally known radio talk show host. Todd Herman is an exciting, provocative speaker on media, advertising, pop culture and the Internet as the entertainment delivery device of the future -- and the present.
Chris Pizzurro is vice president of multimedia
marketing for Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.’s national advertising sales division. Pizzurro, who is part of the division’s market strategy department, is responsible for developing and implementing national advertising sales components for TBS, Inc.’s digital media initiatives. He is based in New York and reports to Barry Fischer, executive vice president of market strategy. In his current position, Pizzurro develops and directs the strategic multimedia marketing efforts in support of the entire portfolio of TBS, Inc. networks, including entertainment leaders TNT, TBS and Cartoon Network as well news giants CNN and CNN Headline News. In 2001, Pizzurro was tapped to develop the company’s advertising sales efforts on behalf of its digital media offerings. He serves as liaison to advertising agencies, investors and consumers as well as to cable and satellite operators, introducing the company’s digital media products, part of the ongoing innovation that is synonymous with TBS, Inc. Pizzurro also contributes to such projects as the company’s Media at the Millennium“, a multi-phase research mechanism that provides new insight into national television media buying. The evolution of this research contributed to the unprecedented success Turner Entertainment Sales enjoyed in the upfront sales season of 2004. Throughout his tenure, Pizzurro has also been instrumental in supporting the division’s presidents and working with senior executives to develop initiatives and efforts for national sales as well as the company’s distribution arm, Turner Network Sales. In addition, Pizzurro also contributed to sales and marketing of the naming rights for the Atlanta-based Philips Arena. Pizzurro joined TBS, Inc. in 1996 as director of multimedia marketing in the sports division, for which he was charged with developing interactive sales presentations for the Goodwill Games. These efforts led to his promotion to vice president in 1998. Turner Broadcasting benefited from Pizzurro’s abilities even before he joined the company. As the founder of Vision Media, an interactive multimedia production company, Pizzurro counted TBS, Inc. among his many clients, which also included other major outlets such as IBM and Rainbow Networks. As the company’s creative director, Pizzurro worked on re-branding efforts for SportsChannel and affiliate marketing for Bravo. A leader in the television industry’s effort to establish standards for digital media content, Pizzurro is an active member of the Cable Advertising Bureau On-Demand Advisory Board, the CTAM On-Demand Consortium, as well as a member of Innovation in Digital Advertising (ID!A). Pizzurro also serves as Governor of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, NY (NATAS). Pizzurro earned a bachelor of fine arts from Syracuse University.Gigi Johnson, Principal, Maremel Partners; Lecturer, Entertainment
and Media Management Institute, UCLA Anderson School of Management: Gigi Johnson launched Maremel Partners in 2001 and recently announced its expansion into family-oriented digital content creation. She will continue her work consulting on new media business model opportunities and partnerships within Maremel as well as lecture at graduate and executive classes on media/technology at UCLA Anderson School. Until August 2005, she was Executive Director for UCLA Anderson’s Entertainment and Media Management Institute. Ms. Johnson was responsible for all elements of this 27-year-old endeavor, running all of the Institute's activities in new business model research, graduate education, and industry relations and events. In addition to her role in managing and expanding the Institute, Ms. Johnson worked with a wide variety of entertainment and media companies as a "business connector" on new technology ventures and business opportunities. She joined UCLA Anderson in 1999 as Director of its renowned Applied Management Research/Field Study Program, working with more than 300 organizations on strategic consulting engagements with over 1,000 students. In addition, she had helped launch UCLA Anderson’s Center for Management in the Information Economy as its acting Associate Director. Prior to UCLA Anderson, Ms. Johnson had been Managing Director at Bank of America, where she had financed major entertainment and media companies’ mergers and acquisitions for most of a decade. Ms. Johnson received her MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and holds a Bachelor’s degree from USC’s School of Cinema-Television in Production.